The Beast Within
by Moi Fah
Summary: He was pure evil...but was she really all that good? OneShot Reicentered


**_A/N: This was one of my nightmares...just kidding. Setting is sometime after/during Bloody Roar 4, but Shenlong is portrayed more like he was in 2nd game; more like a villian._**

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**Summary: He was pure evil...but was she really all that good?**

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**The Beast Within**

**One-Shot/Drabble-ish**

Her heart pounded in her ears, knowing that those screams would plague her for the rest of her life. Her long, raven hair fluttered about her, nearly obscuring the view of the temple she'd lived in her whole life. She ran, faster than she normally would, and through the pitch-black of the night. To think there would be trouble now was no big surprise...someone had to have been causing those earthquakes. However, the earthquakes hadn't been what attracted the young shrine miko from her bed and into the night...no, it was something much worse.

Rei stopped to breathe a heavy breath, the moonlight her only guide as she roamed through the chilly night. Blood lust filled the air like a thick fog, suffocating her psyche tremendously. Not only that, her spiritual connections had lost contact with her. Of course, she'd run to the sacred fire before any other action, but the spirits had left her; forcing her to take action. That's when the screams had resounded though. Hollow and empty like that of a banshee; blood-chilling. She looked to her right first, then the left, and then right once more; her psyche desperately searching for her spirit connections Phobos and Deimos. Nothing was what greeted her after the search, the miko tearing off into a run straight ahead of her. She slowed all too soon as a crunching noise had entered her ears.

Rei shivered and gulped simultaneously. Whatever had made that noise definitely wasn't human...all the more reason for her to destroy it! Her courage returning instantly, she pulled the ribbon from her hair and began to tie it around her pants legs and the arms of her robe, in an attempt to lessen the noise. Her hair wouldn't nearly make as much noise as her clothes, and she sure as hell wasn't about to sneak up on something naked. Summoning her bow, her back hugged the wall as she laced a fire arrow through it and slid around the side. The miko craned her neck to get a better look, her eyes squinting in the darkness as she tried to make out the hunched over figure in the middle of the yard, the same source of the crunching noise.

She wasn't afraid to fire, only curiosity holding her back. Realizing she'd have to overcome this, she whipped around the corner of the building, "Stop, beast!" Rei grimaced as something sliced her shoulder, causing the arrow to go astray and fire somewhere into the darkness. The bow disappeared as she fell to her knees, clutching the wound. Examining it, she saw that not only her shoulder had been slashed, but a good portion of her arm as well! She could have very well had her arm taken off! "What is it that you want, beast?" she asked once more, the wound still tying her to the ground, an immediate disadvantage. The beast before her merely licked its chops and bent down to pick up a bloody mass on the ground. "Phobos!" Rei screamed, the only one who could easily distinguish the two matching crows apart. She was forced to look away though, as the beast chomped down onto its head, ripping it off.

Her eyes swelled with tears, "Beast! You will repent for that!" Staggering to get up, she summoned her bow once more and aimed straight for the middle of the two-legged monstrosity. Rei pulled back to fire but held back as a flash of light, almost a swirling whirlwind, appeared around it. "Hey, hey, pretty lady, you sure you want to fire that arrow?" She lowered her bow in disbelief; had it just...talked? He sauntered over to her slowly, she immediately drawing the bow back up but winced when the speed of the action forced it. "That's what you shouldn't sneak up on people..." he mocked with a laugh and Rei growled. She could see him more clearly now, his features distinguishable; he was about 6 foot, dressed in purple attire with slicked back black hair. Blood coated his mouth, but it was nothing that a wipe from his shirt sleeve didn't fix.

"What on Earth are you?" she questioned, looking at the ground where one of her old companions lay; Deimos he'd probably devoured, "They were pets, my friends, and you killed them like they were game."

"What am I? A Zoanthrope...a tiger. Yeah, yeah, sure. Pets, friends...I really couldn't give a rat's ass." he turned to walk away, not caring if he stepped on the remaining corpse...which he did, "Sure was tasty though..." he remarked, almost as if to scar on purpose. He stopped suddenly and turned, "Oh yeah...you might want to get that looked at." he laughed hardily, causing another growl to rise within the miko; Rei wasn't going to let him get away that easily. "A Zoanthrope? You're one of those crazed monsters?"

"What's it to you, little girl?" he sneered, his nose drawing back up in disgust, much in a feline style. Rei pulled the bow back up and aimed at his retreating figure, "What's it to me? Your little pals have been wreaking havoc all over this city, and not to mention that they're probably the source of the earthquakes, too." the man laughed through his nose, "Nice assumption, kid, but you're wrong. The Zoanthropes aren't necessarily causing those earthquakes, but that's all I'll tell the likes of you."

"Why have you even come here? Just a little meal?" she loudly asked.

The man laughed again, "Man, you sure are clueless. I got an idea, though. How about you fight me, and then I tell you what's going on." she could see in the darkness as his figure slipped a little lower from his tall height, a fighting stance and one that she recognized. It was snake style of Kenpo. She knew it well from having seen it so many times from one of her father's friends, but that had been ages ago. She gasped suddenly...could it possibly be him?

"Only if you agree to fight inside of our dojo."

She could almost feel him smirk, "Sure thing."

The two walked calmly towards the seemingly deserted building for two people who had just become mortal enemies. They seemed almost friendly to each other in way as each of them respected the other's space, and did nothing to tempt the other...except when the man abruptly grabbed her behind. Of course Rei swung around to whack him a good one, only he dodged the attack extremely easily, almost in slow-motion it seemed save for the fact that he had moved so fast it had created an after-image. Rei frowned inwardly, he would not be an easy opponent...perhaps she could change his mind?

"Hey, just who are you anyway? What's your name?"

"Thought you'd never ask. My name is Shenlong, and that's all you need to know right now." Rei frowned, but this time outwardly. So it wasn't him after all, although their names were similar, they were obviously not the same person.

"Alright, listen up." she instantly turned on him, spinning on her heel, "I'm not gonna fight you for a few measly scraps of information, so you'd better hurry up and spit it out. Why here? Why my crows?"

Shenlong leaned forward with his hands on his hips, a smirk on his face that made her want to punch it off. He laughed once more, "You really want to know that bad, huh? Strange, it's kinda unusual to see a human care so much about an animal-"

"You're wrong! It's not strange to care about someone, even if they are animals! Besides, you big jerk, they were two of my closest friends."

"Oh, spare me, I've already laughed enough tonight. Little goody-two-shoes..."

"You're asking for it! Just get on it with it!"

"Hey, you little brat, you're the one who interrupted. Fine, I'll tell you. Those "evil" Zoanthropes you keeping talking about are going crazy because of those earthquakes, causing them to attack _innocent_ ones like me." his way of saying innocent made her want to puke, "So after getting attacked by one, I came across this fortune teller person and he told me to come to a temple to find the source, and kill it."

"Yet, you're a Zoanthrope yourself, right?" Rei asked curtly, she still hated him, but she thought it smart to find out everything about him, "So why weren't you affected?" he smirked that same puke-inducing smirk from before, then pointed to himself, "I already told you, didn't I? I'm innocent, and not as stupid as they others who can't control their powers." Rei crossed her arms and puckered her lips, "So, you killed my crows because you thought they were causing the earthquakes?" Was this guy just stupid or what? Then again, she remembered, he was part cat after all.

"Hey, they were Zoanthropes, right?"

"No, you bastard!"

Shenlong backed up at the ferocity of her scream with a taken aback look. "Well, damn..." he remarked, scratching the back of his neck in slight embarrassment. "Well, how about I just write it off as a meal, then?"

"Are you thick in the head or something?!"

Shenlong put a finger inside of his ear and frowned, "Damn woman, can't you do anything other than screech? It was just a mistake. I must have chosen the wrong temple, so, I'm sorry I guess. There's no way it can be undone now though, but I suppose you want me to make up for it. What's your name anyway?" he asked, nearly forgetting to ask because he hadn't really cared to know it.

"Hm, sounds good to me, then. I'm Rei Hino, miko of this shrine.-"

"Hino?! You're _his_ daughter?"

"If you mean the politician, then yes. Why does that upset you?" Rei shifted from her standing position; standing up this long was making her a little weak in the knees, not to mention that she hadn't had the chance to heal her wound.

"Upset me? Far from that." he smirked again, "It's a shame that you turned down a fight, because any one of Long's students surely would have put up a good fight."

"Hmph, I thought you seemed familiar in some way...never met you until now of course. So, how is it that you know my father and Long-sensei?"

"Funny you should ask that. I was cloned from your 'Long-sensei', and I met your father through him. I haven't spoken to either of them in awhile, so tell me...where are they?" Shenlong leaned forward with his eyebrow cocked. Rei crossed her arms, shifting her arm in pain, and looked away from him, "My father..._I_ couldn't give a rat's ass. Long-sensei is, I mean, he, uh, I'm not where he is." she finished quickly turning completely around, "Excuse me for a moment for my wound needs to be tended." Without warning, she was roughly grabbed around her neck, his arms wrapping around her shoulders and his face burrowing into her hair. "Stop you bastard, that hurts!" she yelled, trying to push him off through the pain.

"And why would I do that? Your blood smells really good..."he whispered, jerking down the shreds of robe that still clung to her arm, and ran his tongue over the wound. She winced at the pain the contact of his tongue caused, and she tried to scramble out of his grasp. "Maybe coming here wasn't such a bad idea..."

"Don't even think of getting any funny ideas!" she warned ferociously, "I'll skewer straight through the heart with my arrows. Just makes you the equivalent of a kitten, attacking a woman like that, you coward."

"Stop rambling, it doesn't suit you." he whispered into her ear after her scent became embedded in his nostrils. She smelled of white lilies, something he wasn't quite used to smelling since he'd lost contact with Busuzima's other creation, Uriko. And just as he could smell her, his scent reached her as well. At first, Rei reasoned him to smell just like an animal would, but with such close contact, she could smell cologne coming off of him, but surprisingly it wasn't cheap but very enthralling. She could also smell alcohol on him, but once again, it didn't stink to her.

"Rambling, as if." she stated, dizzier now thanks to the blood loss and his cologne.

"You killed him, didn't you? Long, I mean." his tongue flicked out, only a moment after he'd asked this, and licked the inside of her ear; she shivered. Rei breathed deeply, her head nodding forward as if she was about to succumb to sleep, "A-And what if I did?"

Shenlong chuckled in her ear, "Then I'd have to say a job well done and a girl after my own heart."

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**_Seriously, don't ask me where this came from, but I do think Shenlong and Rei make a good couple. I like the suspenseful ending I made, hee hee. And since I wanted to end it right there, I'll give a little insight: after this little moment, they go and fight Ryoho and stop the earthquakes and everybody's happy again, and they develop a love/hate relationship. The End! Hee hee, nah, but you can pretend that's what happened if you want to; it just seemed more natural to stop where I left off since it is a one-shot and a little drabble-ish._**


End file.
